Posted on 02/03/2005 7:13:47 AM PST by N3WBI3
Microsoft's iPod users
Wired News reports that many Microsoft employees are choosing iPods over competing portable music players that use the Windows Media format. Drawing on an anonymous Microsoft manager as its source, the story reports that the trend concerns company executives to the point that employees are "hiding their iPods by swapping the telltale white headphones for a less conspicuous pair."
The idea that the iPod is popular among Microsoft employees isn't exactly new or earthshaking. But the Wired News story has caused a minor stir, complete with a Slashdot post. Excerpts from some of the commentary thus far:
* Ed Bott: "I have no doubt that lots of Microsoft employees own iPods. But taking an offhand remark from an unknown source (who may or may not have a hidden agenda and who may or may not know what he’s talking about) and extrapolating it to the entire campus is just silly."
* Doug Thews: "Do Microsoft employees own iPods?? My answer is, WHO CARES! ... It's this kind of tactic (both sides) that really irritate me about "technology camps". Why is it that when you work for one "camp", you MUST NOT OWN any other product that can be considered to infringe on any of their product lines?"
* Jupiter Research's Michael Gartenberg: "Geez, I doubt it's policy, but it's a little tacky to be walking around campus with an iPod, wouldn't you think? You don't have to be scolded about something to know it might not be a career enhancing move. Sort of like working at Coke and ordering a Pepsi for lunch ... "
* Jupiter Research's Joe Wilcox: "I assume iPod usage has got to frustrate, maybe even irk, some of the folks over at the Windows Digital Media division. But I see more of an opportunity than a problem. In fact, I would argue that Microsoft would make even better products if more employees used other vendors' goods. Microsoft developers and their hardware partners could learn lots from the iPodders and use that knowledge to improve PlaysForSure-logo products."
* Microsoft's Robert Scoble: "I think it's a positive thing to study your competitors and figure out what they've done well and look at what you aren't doing well and improve it. Does it do Microsoft any justice to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that Apple doesn't have a better product? No. The market has spoken. ... That all said, if there's a product that comes out that's arguably better than the iPod in end-to-end experience you'll be first to know it. Why? I'll be the first to jump up and down and say it."
* Engadget:"We can understand the people charged with killing the iPod feeling put out, but for as much smack as people talk on Microsoft, we have a hard time believing that the boys at the long rosewood table are troubling themselves over something as silly as this."
You appear to be correct.
"HP's blockbuster deal with Apple will have one exciting side effect. The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft's superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year. You heard it here first."
So how exactly does the iPod lock you into a proprietary system?
Because nothing is as propriatory as teh wma format. If a player plays ogg, mp3 and mp4 it plays all the real standards, AAC and wma are just window dressing.
You have already messed up the fidelity by digitizing the music in the first place. Converting between on digital format and another casues little to know loss of quality (though compression rates vary)
I always suspected that MS employees were Pod People.
I never claimed the Mac was not remarkable.
To quote the Senator from Massachusetts: it was the wrong computer at the wrong time.
BTW: Apple has since abandoned the closed-shop one-computer, one-vender, one-Fuehrer model but the train left the station years ago and Apple is forced to hang out with its 3% and watch everybody else fade off into the horizon.
(ok, maybe THAT analogy went to far - I get carried away sometimes)
On the wired website's blogs there is a current photo of Bill Gates listening to HIS iPod...
'tis possible it's a photoshop jobbie...
Looks real to me.
Surprised he wasn't dressed in his pajamas, what with laying around like that...
Nah, I think its a fake... look at the vintage IBM behind him...
And he looks too young.
Not to mention the 5.25" floppy disks in front of him...
I was pretty skeptical but I heard one last night in Microcenter and am getting one today! WOO HOO.
I just use my PDA.
At 13, your son may not need a full 20-60 GB storage and could save a little bit by getting a mini or similar. The Creative Zen Micro (running around $235) is a pretty attractive player, IMO. Slick looks, more features than the iPod, and reputedly sounds better. Also won't lock him into iTunes as he expands his library.
If he's sure he wants a larger player, there's not much on the market right now to compete with the iPod.
MS at the time, iirc, was selling apps for the Mac. That was pre-Windows.
>>Are iPods really that much better than the competitors?<<
I think they sound better, at least better than the ones I've used. I generally dislike Apple as a company for various reasons, but I like my iPod even though I probably overpaid for it. I'm not sure if the iPod is the only device that uses AAC files, but I've found that those rips are slightly better than MP3s, even at the highest bitrates. I have the 40 gig and have ripped all my CDs on there, and still have a bunch of room -- almost to double my collection. I've ripped them at the highest AAC bitrates.
I am not going to tell you whether or not it is wise for a thirteen year old to buy one, but I can tell you that the iPod is by FAR the best player on the market and for me well, well worth it.
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